This K01 mentored research scientist development award seeks funding to support the broad, long term objective of developing a program of research in HIV/AIDS intervention for Afro-Caribbean American youth. The specific aims of the proposed study and related training activities are: 1) to advance knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS prevention focusing on mother-daughter relationships; 2) to gain expertise in appropriate research approaches including community-based participatory research for designing and testing an HIV/AIDS prevention intervention; 3) to expand understanding of statistics appropriate for use with intervention designs ; 4) to establish and maintain relationships with faith-based communities as a foundation for ongoing research; and 5) to develop and submit an independent externally-funded research grant. Training activities will complement the research objectives by providing mentoring, academic training, practical experience, and consultation. This proposal is health-related because Afro-Caribbean American youth are at risk for sexually transmitted disease including HIV/AIDS. The safe choice intervention emphasizes abstinence but also teaches them how to make responsible decisions should they decide to be sexually active. In this way, adolescents can eliminate the risks for sexually-transmitted HIV/AIDS. Churches have been a powerful source of influence for many Caribbean families and have been underutilized by researchers to effect changes in sexual behavior. This descriptive-comparative research design will develop and test a church-based, theory-driven, and culture-specific intervention from an existing intervention that works. The study will utilize a community based participatory approach using convenience samples. Two separate focus groups (10 mothers and 10 daughters) will be conducted to gain culture-specific information which will be used to tailor the existing intervention. In the "Act" phase, the tailored intervention will be implemented and feasibility and acceptability will be evaluated. The premise of the study is to identify culture-specific determinants of risk behaviors comprehensively using quantitative and qualitative methods to generate knowledge that can be directly applied to practice and develop a program of research focusing on safe choice as a means of HIV/AIDS reduction. The goal for future research is to identify and implement culturally-appropriate HIV/AIDS intervention strategies for Afro-Caribbean Americans. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]